Small Persian Piled Weavings

An Exhibition by the Collins Gallery

The advent of digital photography and desk top publishing has truly revolutionized our business. If we had had these capabilities in the seventies and eighties, there would be a much richer inventory of photographs for us to employ in rug studies. Unfortunately, the technology of the time ( i.e. color transparencies, separations, etc.) was cumbersome and expensive. Even publishing small catalogues, like my SHIRAZ and FLOWERS OF THE DESERT cost much more than could ever be recouped in sales. In addition to the many book projects which various people found ways to finance in the last thirty years, I think we are fortunate to have quality auction catalogues of Rippon Boswell and the yearly Herrmann catalogues to study. Most serious dealers now make a reasonably good digital record of everything they handle. Thus, the record of rugs in commercial and in private hands is growing. Now publishing can be advanced since huge printings are no longer required, and limited edition catalogues like this one may be easily produced. Although the technology was not yet available, J.P.J. Homer’s “homemade” catalogues with tipped-in photos were the precursor of this idea. I am optimistic about the future of rug studies and expect to see a burst of publishing as the technology becomes more widely utilized.

To my knowledge, this is the largest collection of bags to be offered in a “selling” exhibition in this country. Furthermore, this may be the only catalogue solely devoted to piled bags. I am indulging in the luxury of illustrating the bags in a large format, as well as a large detail of the weave. The proportion of the detail is approximately twice the scale of the bag. I think this view, together with the basic technical information, will be very useful to collectors who will use this catalogue as a reference. I am listing comparative examples from a few texts which I feel are important. They are listed in the appendix. Because of the significant nature of this group as a collection, I am also citing any publication or exhibition history. These references are also listed in the appendix.

It is nearly twenty years since I wrote in FLOWERS OF THE DESERT that the rugs we were collecting in the last quarter of the twentieth century would exhaust the supply of undiscovered material from primary sources. I speculated that the limits of what had survived from the “collectible” period of Persian tribal and village weaving would be defined in our time, and that what we were collecting would become the basis of the great twenty-first century collections. I have lived long enough now to have been involved in disbursing some of the very collections I helped to assemble. This collection is one of them.

It has been a topic of conversation among those of us who have been around this field for several decades that the vast inventory of things we have sold since the 1970s has become an important source. We can no longer assume that wonderful things will continue to tumble out of estates. While we have certainly not found the “last” tribal rug, it cannot have escaped the attention of any rug collector or dealer that exciting material is becoming exponentially scarce. While new interest in collecting these objects grows, the supply does not. Moreover, the dealers who serve as educators about the material, as well as brokers, are a dwindling lot in the US.

Ninety five percent of the material in this catalogue is from one collection. I have had the pleasure of helping to develop it for over twenty years. This collector and I have enjoyed sharing our ideas about and perceptions of these bags. We are both enthusiastic about seeing the collection re-distributed to people whose eyes and ideas will lead to new perspectives. Thus, these artifacts will provide yet another lifetime of pleasure.